Celebrity Weight-Loss Extremes! What Stars Did to Get Fit
Crash dieting is nothing new — and some celebrities are still going to great lengths to shed a few extra lbs before hitting a big red-carpet event.
Take Jessica Biel, for example, who bathed in 20 lbs of Epsom salt before hitting the 2024 Met Gala. From extreme diet hacks to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, Life & Style reveals the real way some of these A-list stars got skinny.
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Kim Kardashian
Kim is no stranger to going to extremes to achieve the look she wants. Take May 6’s Met Gala, where the 43-year-old made headlines — and drew gasps — with her dramatically cinched waist. “I feel so snatched,” the Kardashians star said in a Vogue video documenting her final fitting, as a dresser pulled her Maison Margiela corset laces until her waist was a reported 19 inches. While online commenters joked that the 5-foot-2 mom of four must have removed a rib to get so tiny, the true effects of wearing corsets are equally alarming. In addition to causing shortness of breath and possible fainting, over a long period the practice can cause digestive issues and reduce muscle strength in the back as well as in internal organs, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Not only that, but “waist training,” where users wear a cincher for hours at a time, will not result in weight loss. “It’s going to make you look slimmer when you have it on,” University of Missouri physiology professor Stephen Ball told one outlet. “But I don’t know any physiology that would explain that you’re going to lose body fat wearing this device.”
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Jennifer Aniston
Maybe she’s training for this summer’s Paris Olympics? An insider exclusively tells Life & Style that since she turned 55, Jennifer has ramped up her workouts on par with a pro athlete. “Instead of just accepting the whole aging process, she wants to fight back hard and the best way to do that is by packing on muscle,” says the insider. Indeed, the CDC says women can lose from 5 to 10 percent of muscle mass every decade after 50 and recommends “lifting weights or doing pushups at least two days a week.” Not Jen! “She’s up at 3 a.m. to do her first workout of the day, then she’ll have a big breakfast and go back to bed for a few hours before her next workout,” says the source. “She’s doing 1,000 crunches every day, weight training five days a week, cardio, yoga and Pilates. She’s obsessed!”
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Sunny Hostin
“During COVID, I gained 40 lbs,” the attorney and The View cohost recently revealed. “All I did was eat… I love to cook, and I found out, I love to eat. And I was horrified about the fact that I would have to come out on air. So I also took Mounjaro.” Along with other semaglutide drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, the weight-loss injection has been snapped up by stars looking to slim down fast — and Sunny, 55, has also credited it with helping lower her cholesterol. “I feel better, I think I look better,” she said. Not everyone has been happy with the drugs, originally developed to treat diabetes. According to the Harvard Medical School, side effects can include nausea, vomiting and constipation, as well as “Ozempic face” — sunken cheeks and eyes caused by rapid weight loss. “I was one of the people that felt sick,” Amy Schumer admitted, calling it “unlivable.”
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Jessica Biel
She’s shared her love of “shower beer” on Instagram. Now Jessica has revealed another unusual bathroom habit. Prior to the Met Gala, the 42-year-old shared a clip to TikTok during which she dumped 20 lbs of Epsom salt into a hot bath (“with water as hot as you can take it”) for a 30-minute soak. “Drink tons of water, then off to bed early.” Don’t go loading your cart with bags of it just yet. While some claim the compound of magnesium and sulfate helps with muscle pain, bloat and stress, the jury is out on whether Jess’ very salty tub time could act as a last-minute slimdown to fit into a formfitting dress. At most, one dermatologist told PopSugar, the bath could soothe dry, rough skin or inflammatory skin conditions like psoriasis. But 20 lbs of the stuff is way too much. Most derms recommend using just two cups per bath-full!
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Anne Hathaway
Anne may have won her Oscar for her portrayal of Fantine in the big-screen film adaptation of the Broadway musical Les Misérables. However, the part came with a price. The actress lost 25 lbs to star in the movie, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “I just had to stop eating, all for a total of 13 days’ shooting.” She later reflected on the extreme weight loss during an interview with People, explaining, “I’d lost an unhealthy amount of weight in two weeks. I didn’t know anything about nutrition. I taxed my body, and my brain bore the brunt of it for a while. I just felt very anxious and very lost at that time.” She added, “That weight loss was not a long-term good thing for my health, and it took a really long time to come back from it. And I was still really sick because of it.”
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